The Ultimate Guide to Achieving Successful Weight Loss.
Many people think that exercise is the key to losing weight, but research shows that it has little effect on energy expenditure and can even increase appetite and slow down metabolism. The best way to stay slim is to avoid overeating and control calorie intake.
Table of Contents (Show / Hide)
If you want to shed some pounds, you may be tempted to join a gym and start working out regularly. But don’t expect to see the results on the scale anytime soon. According to scientific studies, exercise is not very effective for weight loss. Dr. Kevin Hall, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, says that exercise is great for health, but not for slimming down. He says: “We need to rebrand exercise … exercise isn’t a weight loss tool per se, it’s excellent for health is probably the best single thing that you can do other than stopping smoking to improve your health. But don’t look at it as a weight loss tool”.
Exercise can help you live longer and happier, but it won’t make you burn a lot of calories. That’s because most of the energy we use every day comes from our resting metabolism, which is how much energy our body needs to function normally. This accounts for about 70 to 90 percent of our total energy expenditure. The other factors are the energy we use to digest food and the energy we use for physical activity. Physical activity, which includes any movement we do, only makes up about 10 to 30 percent of our energy expenditure. And this is the only part that we can control.
But even if we increase our physical activity, we may not lose much weight. One study found that a 200-pound man who ran for an hour, four times a week for a month, would only lose about 5 pounds at most, assuming he didn’t change his diet or other habits. And that’s a big assumption, because exercise can also affect our behavior and physiology in ways that counteract its benefits. For example, exercise can make us hungrier and cause us to eat more. It can also make us lazier and cause us to move less. These are called “compensatory behaviors” – the ways we unknowingly sabotage our workouts.
Another phenomenon that can hinder weight loss is metabolic compensation. This means that as we lose weight, our resting metabolism slows down and we burn less energy at rest. This makes it harder to maintain or lose more weight. There is still more research needed on this topic, but one study from 2012 was very surprising. The researchers measured the energy expenditure of a group of hunter-gatherers called the Hadza in Tanzania. They were very active and lean, unlike most people in the US and Europe who spend their days sitting behind desks and computers. But the researchers found no difference in their energy expenditure. Somehow, the Hadza were able to balance their physical activity with their energy conservation.
So how do they stay slim? They don’t overeat. The bottom line is that we can easily undo the calories we burn in exercise by eating more or moving less. It would take an hour of running to burn off a Big Mac and fries, an hour of dancing to burn off three glasses of wine, or an hour of cycling to burn off two slices of pizza. The most effective way to lose weight is to control our calorie intake and avoid overeating. Exercise is good for many reasons, but it won’t help us much with weight loss.
The researchers found that the Hadza people in Tanzania, who are very active and lean, did not burn more calories than people in the US and Europe, who are mostly sedentary and overweight. This means that their physical activity was somehow balanced by their energy saving. So what is their secret to staying slim? They eat less. We can easily cancel out the calories we burn in exercise by eating more or moving less. It would take an hour of running to get rid of a Big Mac and fries, an hour of dancing to get rid of three glasses of wine, or an hour of cycling to get rid of two doughnuts. That’s why exercise should be seen as a healthy addition to a strategy that’s focused on food. But many government agencies and companies still promote exercise as a solution for obesity … especially companies that want us to keep consuming their products.
Coca-Cola has been pushing the exercise message since the 1920s. The idea is that you can drink as much soda as you want as long as you work out. But that’s not how it works. It’s very hard to burn off those extra calories from a can of soda. We have an obesity problem in this country, and we shouldn’t blame it on low physical activity and high calorie intake equally. Public health policymakers should prioritize improving our food environment to help people make healthier choices about what they eat. It’s not impossible to lose weight through exercise, but it’s very difficult. And we need to understand how that works. If you go to the gym, and you burn a lot of calories, it takes a long time and a lot of effort, but you can undo all of that in five minutes of eating a slice of pizza. The difference is huge, and most people don’t realize that.
URL :
News ID : 2166
Is it Normal to Talk to Yourself?
Pakistan records highest daily COVID-19 cases
UAE reports three more monkeypox cases
Latin American countries report new COVID-19 cases, fatalities
In first six months of 2022, Somalia had 8,041 cholera cases, 37 deaths
Best way to quit smoking - Doctor's opinion & my experience - 100% guaranteed
Ten warning signs that indicates you need Vitamin D
Actor Philip Baker Hall dies at 90
Most satisfying Jobs in 2023!
10 routines of all successful people
